Extra Credit: Flip-Flopping Beliefs

After the presidential election was over and Barack Obama was going to be re-elected as President of the United States there was, as anyone would expect, a rave of news and media coverage, however the attention was not on the election but of two certain states; Washington and Colorado.  Why was there so much attention towards these two?  It was because both states had made a very interesting step and had legalized marijuana.  Now marijuana has been illegal in America since the government first caught wind of the plant (no pun intended) so long ago.  The question ad hears to why the state would go against federal law and legalize this almost as though they "flip-flopped" their beliefs and yet it turns out this is not the first time governmental offices have not agreed with the federal law of the U.S.

The picture shown was an actual advertisement brought to us all by the U.S. Health and Human Services as well as the American Cancer Society which are both governmental agencies that are disregarding the federal law of marijuana being illegal.  Now wondering why they would do such a "flip-flop" is a curious question but after viewing the image one may see and wonder if they ever did agree with the federal law.  The first thing to see is the half white, half black background.  The White background shows two cigarettes crushed by being put out and the words saying "Worried about the risk of cancer?" and the dirty black ingredients in cigarettes.  The Black background shows a marijuana cigarette otherwise known as a joint and the words saying "Switch to Marijuana It's Cancer Free!"  and has the accreditation by the U.S. Health and Human Services and American Cancer Society.  Now in the curiosity of the government I am suppose to be following and believing in I am curious why this poster has been made through a government office if for so long the government has believed marijuana to be just as bad as drugs such as Meth and Cocaine and so on?  From the looks of it though it looks like they did not agree to this and this thought has come from analyzing the way this image has been designed.  The placement of the two sides being both black and white, is this trying to say there are no grey areas in this argument?  The images are a big difference with the cigarettes looking gross and destroyed and the marijuana joint looking very neatly made and having it lit with a hand holding it may be insinuating that these people like to hold and smoke marijuana and do not agree the same with cigarettes and maybe we all should as well.  The showing that cigarettes can cause cancer and marijuana cannot could possibly be insinuating that this should be smoked to have cancer so many people may try to use this instead of cigarettes.  In the end it has grey areas because our federal government looks at marijuana as illegal and any individual can be charged however in certain states it is legal to have and use.  The discussion continues and will keep continuing until it is either legal by the federal law or is rid out of our country for good and the choices are up to ourselves as citizens/voters of this country so then I ask you.. Which side are you on and why?